European defence in 2020

"A force of 120,000 troops that can respond within 60 days, a fleet of military helicopters and cargo planes to transport them to conflict zones, an intelligence service to evaluate the political and military risks of missions, and an EU defence budget to pay for all of the above — according to the Institute for Security Studies (ISS), these will be the key provisions for Europe's defence in 2020," reports Die Presse.

In its study — What Ambitions for European Defence in 2020? — the European think tank insists on the fact that astute diplomacy and generous support for reconstruction and foreign development will not be enough to protect European citizens and economic interests. The Viennese daily concurs with the view that the European Union is lacking in resources. The rapid reaction force of 60,000 troops, whose creation was announced in Helsinki in 1999, has yet to be established — and there has been no deployment of fifteen 1,500-strong EU battle groups, which were also promised. On the contrary, European military missions have been preceded by "long winded negotiations on the number of troops each member state would contribute to deployments in the African desert or the Balkans."